garden delights

My beloved broad beans are coming in dribs and draps.

For any of you who have never had the privelage to have fresh baby broad beans, you are missing out on a gem.  They aren't like their frozen big brothers with woody almost plastic like outer shells.  These little fellas are so sweet and don't need to be double podded...although when they get bigger, I'm a double pod snob!! We had these raw as a salad with fresh mint, feta, a little chilli, garlic, lemon juice and a good evoo. Simplicity at its superb finest.  A little tip for adding garlic to something like this salad is to rub a cut clove of garlic around the bowl you are putting the salad in and thats it.  That way you get the subtle garlic flavour without the rawness of it actually in the salad.

A baby eggplant...I can already taste the melanzanes (stuffed and fried eggplants)

This is a rocket plant left to go to seed.  Hubby lets 2 or 3 plants go to seed and this is our rocket seed supply for the year.  If you are interested in doing it, there will come like a pea pod grow underneath the white flower further down the stalk.  Keep on watering the plant like normal but it will naturally die off.  When it starts to die off then its time to harvest the pods.

Here you can see the little pods growing below the flower on the left above.  They are a fresh green colour at the moment, but will turn yellow and dry out when they are ready to harvest.  Another great reason to do this is it attracts bees into your garden and thats what we need to pollinate other trees or plants you might have, so its a no brainer!  The world needs more bees people!

Basil growing nicely

Tomatoes ready to be planted into larger pots or garden bed.  We love making our own chutneys and passata so we go hell for leather on the tomatoes!

This is our high tech hot house to raise our seeds into seedlings.  They are in a sunny window sill inside which works treat. Did I tell you my hubby has a fetish for chillis? We have 7 other bushes that are a few years old as well as a cherished 9 year old birds eye chilli plant still delivering the goods. 

The gorgeous garlic will be ready in another month or so.  The stem will start to fall over and then they will be harvested and left on the ground or the garden bed to cure for a day or two. Hubby then plaits them up, which is quite a skill.  We should have enough to get us almost through the year.

And last but not least some beautiful roses. The front of our house is where I can have my 'non edible' garden.  Its fairly low maintenance with seaside daisy that I've propagated easily from runners that they produce.  I love the roses to have inside to brighten up the house and their gentle scent filling the air.

How is your vegie patch going? Any of you doing it for the first time?  Or any favourites you can't live without growing too?  May you be blessed with a green thumb!

Ciao, Jan